A Notice for Our Budding WI Poets!

Are you thinking of entering this year’s Blaikley Salver poetry competition?

You don’t need to have any prior experience with poetry-writing, so just give it a go!

This year’s theme is ‘River Voices’, which gives you lots of scope for using your imagination. Rivers are so important for us, so tell us what they mean to you – their beauty, ravages, histories, how they speak to us through the seasons, the natural world that they support and how they have inspired generations of artists, musicians, nature lovers and so many others through the ages. Perhaps you have your own memories of a river or a river trip that you’d like to put down on paper.

The poem can be of any length up to 32 lines, handwritten or typed, with double spacing. Entries can be submitted by email to both secretary@cornwallwi.org.uk and accounts@cornwallwi.org.uk. Make sure you include your name and the name of your WI. Or you may enter by post by sending two copies of your poem, with your name and your WI on one copy only, to: CFWI, Chy Noweth an Conteth, Truro Business Park, Threemilestone, Truro TR4 9NH.

The cost of entering is £5, and the closing date for submissions is Wednesday 31 July 2024. You can get the application form from your WI Secretary, or download a form from our website.

You may be interested to read last year’s wonderful winning poem, by Cora Woodside, a member of Fowey WI. The theme for 2023 was ‘Celebrating Difference’, and we think Cora’s beautifully-constructed poem captures generational differences perfectly.

Celebrating Difference
by Cora Woodside

My mother knew how to make a stew,
chopping onions and softening them in sizzling fat,
then sieving flour for thickening.
She’d pound the steak on the hard wood board,
then slice it into squares,
to join coins of carrots and potatoes, stock,
salt, pepper and a daring pinch of thyme,
with a crumbled Oxo cube.
A nourishing, tasty meal, British through and through.

Me, I like to spice things up with my British beef.
A slosh of French wine
goes well with Greek olives
and Spanish chorizo.
With Italian pasta, I can add
a taste of Baltic lands
in paprika and sour cream.
Oriental ginger, lemongrass and soy
excite my taste buds another day.
Or, from the Americas, it might be
jalapenos and black-eyed beans.

Different ingredients from other lands
open up our world to new wisdoms
and ways of doing things.

A lesson in life